


Let Me Do This

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Death, Gen, I'm sorry don't hate me, Poison, Poisoning, Self-Sacrifice, cyanide - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 07:15:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13565541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	Let Me Do This

Buzzing vibrated in his pocket against his leg. “Sorry, Mom,” he said, staring at the phone. “Duty calls.”

He stood up and took in a deep breath of the flowers he’d brought, setting them in front of the oblong stone with his mother’s name written on it. It had been a year since she passed, but he was still struggling. Emily and JJ had suggested going to the cemetery to sit and talk with her on occasion claiming it might help. He was skeptical at first, but he tried it once, and then again, then another time, and then he was coming nearly every day he wasn’t at work. He missed her - more than he ever thought he would. 

Since he worked at the Bureau, he didn’t have enough time to see her as often as he would’ve liked, and after her diagnosis it was even worse. Deep down, he knew his mother wanted him exactly where he was - she’d been so proud of him - but that didn’t alleviate all of the guilt. Little of it in fact.

“We have another case, Mom. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“What do we have?” Spencer asked the moment he stepped into the bullpen. 

Emily shook her head. “Nothing good.”

As they stepped into the room together, Emily asked for Garcia to start the briefing. Garcia was even more on edge than she normally was, and if it wasn’t something in her personal life, then this case was even worse than Spencer had imagined. “We found a mother, Margaret, and daughter, Abigail, last name Harraway, locked in a building off the highway on the way out of DC. The mother died from a heart attack and the daughter from cyanide poisoning.”

“Cyanide?” JJ asked. “Who uses cyanide beside those committing mass suicides and vengeful spouses trying to get rid of their significant other?”

Garcia clapped her hand up to her mouth, trying not to vomit as she placed the recording in the middle of the table. The obviously distorted voice on the other hand sent chills down the spines of everyone in attendance.

Wanna make a lasting impact? Scarring someone’s brain does far more than a knife. And the scar is much more permanent. Didn’t exactly go as planned unfortunately. Mother died of a heart attack. But next time, I’ll pick a better couple to work with.

Matt sucked in his lips and rapped on the table trying to keep himself together. “So he locked the two in a building, gave them enough cyanide to kill one and what? Made them choose?”

Tara had come into contact with a number of psychopaths whose lack of empathy astounded her, but this was something else all together. He watched from the sidelines like a voyeur as a daughter took a cyanide pill, presumable to save her mother’s life. “Whoever this is likely claimed that whoever lived would be allowed to leave. They just had to choose amongst themselves.”

Rossi felt the acid rise in his throat. “So Abigail swallowed the cyanide so her mother would live?”

Garcia had already pulled information on the family. “Abigail lived at home. She had a difficult time maintaining a job and her mother helped her a lot. Margaret lost her husband in a car crash years ago and was recently engaged to a new man. It would make sense that Abigail wanted to give her mother a chance at happiness again?” The fact that she was able to do any kind of profiling at all made her queasy, and the silence from her friends confirmed she was on the right track. 

“All right,” Emily said, turning on boss-mode again. “We need to get ahead of this. Let’s get to work.”

They hadn’t gotten ahead of him. For nearly a week, they had been two steps behind. Another two people, couple Ava Lockner and David Euling, had been taken and hidden away. After 10 hours of captivity, Ava emerged, ran to the nearest person she could find and was taken to the hospital. David had swallowed a pill to save the woman he loved, and during her first 12 hours in the hospital, she tried to commit suicide twice. She was distraught, numb - hollow.

But finally they found the unsub and narrowed down where he might be located. “He has a home, owns two vacant lots, and recently purchased a small warehouse for the start of a business,” Garcia said. 

“Okay,” Emily said. “Matt, you and JJ take the warehouse. Rossi, Tara and Luke, you take his home and the abandoned lot closer to the Bureau, and Spencer and I will take the other lot.”

“Does it make sense to even check out the lots?” Garcia wondered.

Spencer shrugged. “Given the nature of this unsub it’s more than likely that he has a bunker or bomb shelter of some kind on one or both of the vacant lots.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense. Stay safe, my babies.”

Nearly every location they sought out came up empty, and within a couple of hours, Rossi, Luke, Tara, Matt and JJ returned to the Bureau with nothing to show for their outing except a location the unsub wasn’t located. “Spence and Emily aren’t back yet?” JJ asked.

“Nope,” Garcia replied. “And I haven’t heard from them either.”

After another hour and numerous phone calls that went unanswered, they all knew something was wrong. They had to go to the other vacant lot.

“Emily, we’ve been here for 4 hours. What the hell are we going to do?”

Shortly after they’d arrived at the lot, Spencer was shot in the neck with a tranquilizer dart. Before Emily could even turn around and aim her gun, no less find the unsub, she’d been downed as well. Both had woken up a short time later and deduced that they’d been placed in a bomb shelter. “What we’re not doing is giving this asshole what he wants!”

This team had come to far; she scoured the area for anyway to unlock themselves from their confines without any luck. Again, Emily listened to the tape: 

I don’t know which of you agents are down here, but same rules apply. I will let one of you leave when the other takes the poison. Who lives? Who dies?

“Why are you listening to it over and over again?” Spencer bellowed. “There is nothing on this recording! We don’t even know if we’re in the lot where we stopped. There was a forest behind it. We could be in there. We literally have no idea. And we have no cell service.”

He was right. They had nothing to go on. All they could hope for was that the team would find them in time. Although she’d continue looking for a way to escape. They’d been left one glass of water - presumably to swallow the pill. But they had nothing else, meaning that if the team didn’t find them within about four days, they were both dead.

“We’ve been scouring the area for days!” Garcia screamed when the rest of team came back to recruit more Bureau members. “It’s been three days!”

Matt did his best to comfort a shaking Penelope. “We have no idea what kind of food and water they’ve been left. It could just be a battle of wills.”

Penelope knew that wasn’t possible; the other two crime scenes had not turned up food or water save for one glass, but she allowed herself to breathe in Matt’s embrace for a moment before they got back to work.

“No, Emily.”

“But I’m older.”

“What kind of logic is that?” Spencer asked, his mouth heavy as he spoke. They’d only had a few sips of water each and it had been at least three days. They weren’t going to last much longer. “You’re not taking the pill. The team is going to find us.” After this long, he wasn’t quite sure, but he wasn’t about to let Emily give her life for him; she’d already done too much, put too much of herself on the line for his sake. “I won’t allow you to do that for me. You’ve sacrificed enough for me.”

Emily was so tired; she was having trouble keeping her eyes open. But she reached over and grabbed Spencer’s hand. “I would make every decision again. Spence, you’re one of my best friends.” Her eyes began to water as she spoke. She knew she needed to keep her fluids, but she couldn’t help herself, her voice shaking as she continued. “I love you. And I regret no decision I’ve made in regards to you. You’re like the brother I never had and wished I did.”

“I love you, too, Emily. If I had a sister, I think she’d be a lot like you.” Spencer squeezed her hand and looked toward the glass. The unsub had stood by his promise with the previous couple. If he took the poison, Emily would be free to go. “But you’ve done enough for me. Mexico, prison, Barnes. You put everything on the line for me when you could’ve easily thrown me under the bus. I won’t let you do this too.” It hurt to speak. His muscles felt like they were being weighed down by cement. They didn’t have much longer. 

When he looked over this time, Emily was asleep; she was alive, her chest rising and falling slowly, but she wasn’t going to last long. He’d made his decision a day ago. Silently, he slunk over toward the desk and picked up the pill, turning it over a few times in his hand. He wasn’t scared. He actually felt calm; this was what he was supposed to do. 

As he swallowed the pill, Emily opened her eyes, and shot to attention. “No! Spence! Throw it up, now! I am your boss! This is an order!” She screamed so loudly her voice broke. She clenched her teeth so hard she could’ve sworn they’d broken. The tears streamed down her face as she stared at him in horror. “Why did you do that?”

“Because he’s going to let you go as soon as I die. Emily after everything you’ve done for me. Let me do this for you. Let me give you a chance to live.”

“Spence, you have so much to live for. The team is coming. Please, don’t do this.” Her head fell into his lap. Her friend. Her baby brother. “Please, it’s not too late. You can throw it up.”

A sleepy smile painted its way across Spencer’s face, his hand now resting on Emily’s head, doing his best to comfort her. “I’m not afraid of dying. You’ve already done it once. It’s my turn.”

A painful, sobbing laugh wrenched its way up Emily’s throat. “How can you not be afraid? I was petrified.”

“Because I’m doing this for you. Knowing you’ll live makes it all okay. And…” It was getting more and more difficult to speak. Cyanide could be a very ugly or a fairly painless death, thankfully, it seemed to be the later. He could feel his heart rate slowing.

“Spencer! Spencer, stay with me! And what? Keep talking.” She watched Spencer take a deep breath, barely able to talk now, and she screamed in agony. “Someone help us! Please! Spence, stay with me,” she whispered. “And what?”

“And if religion is actually true and not just a figment of our imaginations, I’ll get to see my mom again. She’s waiting for me, Emily. I have to go. I love you. Tell everyone I love them and I’m sorry.”

“No, no, no, no, no.” Emily sat up and opened Spencer’s mouth attempting to make him throw up in a desperate attempt to save his life, but he couldn’t move. 

She beat her hand against the wall as Spencer slumped into her, barely breathing. All she could hear were the sounds of her own sobs and the slow, dull thumping inside Spencer’s chest.

A slight buzzing caught Emily’s attention. The camera watching them eyed them both, and a metallic thud resounded throughout the bunker. “Spence, it’s open. We can get out of here. Spencer…”

With her head to his chest, she listened. Nothing. “No, no, Spencer, we’re saved. Please wake up!”

Freedom was within arm’s reach, but she couldn’t leave him - not here.

The area of the forest they’d been taken to still hadn’t been searched - too large and too cumbersome to do in so few days. “What was that?” JJ asked, her ears picking up a sound she hadn’t heard before. From deep within the forest, a resounding scream thudded against the trees.


End file.
